Community helps Md. man who lost father and sister to cancer

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The Ullman family of Whiteford, Md., has been through more in the past year than many families go through in a lifetime. In April 2012, dad Chris was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, the same form of cancer that his daughter Holly was facing.

Soon after, Jared Ullman came home to help his mother care for his father and sister. Holly passed away in September, Chris in November.

After a difficult year, Jared got the news that he was accepted into his dream master’s degree program at Jerusalem University.

“They accepted him on the spot,” said Emily Taylor, Jared’s girlfriend. “So he was really, really excited about it, however, he was just worried about how he was going to fund it because of the medical expenses from his family this past year.”

Taylor then got the idea to create a gofundme.com account to raise money to get Jared to Israel.
She sent out the link to friends and family on Facebook, and the donations came pouring in.

“Here’s the check for 1,250 dollars made out to Jared from the website,” Taylor said as she showed us the check. “And I labeled it as, ‘Dreams do come true.'”

Taylor asked our FOX43 Crew to come along to surprise Jared with the check, for her very own version of “Pay it Forward.”

Jared was speechless.

“Stunning that people would get together and help me out to continue my dreams of going to school,” he said.